OKARA: PPP district president and former provincial minister Ashraf Khan Sohna had to pay a heavy price for exchanging hot words with Tehsil Municipal Administration head on Monday, when the TMA workers turned the former’s filling station into a landfill by dumping a huge quantity of garbage there.

The TMA also dumped garbage at a busy intersection some 200 yards from Mr Sohna’s house in the evening.

Local leaders of various political parties, including PPP, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), Jamiat Ulama-i-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) and Ahl-i-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), along with city’s business community condemned the TMA Administrator Fareed Ahmad Sheikh’s act, terming it abuse of power.

Mr Sohna told Dawn he had an exchange of words with the TMA head over removal of some kiosks of some poor vendors along GT Road at a wedding ceremony on Monday afternoon.

Politician pays the price for talking straight to ‘powerful’ official

About an hour after the incident, he said, the TMA workers, acting at the behest of their boss, dumped a huge quantity of garbage in front of his filling station on MA Jinnah Road.

Later in the evening, TMA sanitation staff also emptied two carts of garbage at MCB-Ravi Road-Sadar Bazaar and Mandi Road intersection, just 200 feet away from the PPP leader’s house.

As soon as the news of TMA act spread, hundreds of PPP workers, along with other sympathisers of Mr Sohna gathered at his filling station raising slogans against Mr Sheikh.

PPP MPA Khurram Jahangir Wattoo also joined the protesters.

Okara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) President Arshad Iqbal also condemned the incident and said the chamber would not allow any officer to settle personal score using his official authority against anyone.

A meeting between district’s political figures, including JI Emir Dr Liaqat Ali Kasur, Jamaat-i-Ahl-i-Sunnat leader Sahibzada Maulana Fazalur Rehman, JUI-F leader Ehsan Gilani, office-bearers of Markazi Anjuman-i-Tajran and District Coordination Officer Kaiser Saleem was going on at the DCO’s Camp Office to settle the issue.

The TMA administrator was not available for his comments.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2015

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